COVID news & more, 6/2/24

Hawaii is at a HIGH level of SARS-CoV-2 in their wastewater. The Hawaiian wastewater virus levels are as high as what was seen in December and January in the rest of the U.S. This may be due to Hawaii’s relative proximity to countries where COVID levels are also high such as Australia, New Zealand and Singapore. In the rest of the United States, wastewater SARS-2 levels are at “LOW” levels, up from “MINIMAL” levels last week. Wyoming and Maine have a “Substantial” level of COVID virus in wastewater. Emergency department visits for COVID are up 5.1%, but overall a low compared to earlier this year.

SARS-2 in wastewater in the U.S. 

From https://www.cdc.gov/nwss/rv/COVID19-nationaltrend.html

Hawaii levels are “Excessive”

From https://iowacovid19tracker.org

FLiRT mutated variants KP.2 and KP.3 make up 41% of the variants in the U.S. now, with KP.1.1 representing another 9.2% of cases. The KP family now makes up more than 50% of the variants circulating in the United States and has pushed JN.1 out.

From https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#variant-proportions

Here in the Bay Area, Stanford had extremely high levels of virus in wastewater this week, Palo Alto and San Jose sewer shed levels are high and there is an uptick in Novato and southeast San Francisco. Los Angeles county is very low at 40 PMMoV as compared to Stanford which is at 762 PMMoV. According to JP Weiland, there is a 10% increase in COVID infections this week and he calculates that 1 in every 178 people in the U.S. is currently infected. 

In contrast, about 1 in 67 people in Canada are currently infected with COVID, with the highest levels in Saskatchewan. In Australia, there has been a sharp rise in cases and about 1 in 19 people are infected. SARS-2 infections have surpassed the JN.1 Christmas wave in NSW Australia and appear to be due to the FLiRT mutations as Australia heads into their winter.

New data continues to show COVID’s long term effects. A new study from Ziyad Al-Aly’s lab at the Veterans Administration hospitals looked at 135,161 SARS-CoV-2 infected individuals compared to 5,206,835 controls after three years. For individuals who were not hospitalized with their original COVID infection in 2020, the increased risk of death normalized after one year. But at three years, these people still experienced 9.6 disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) per 1,000 persons, primarily due to neurologic disease. Mild COVID infections were not benign- people continued to face new health problems years later.

Previously hospitalized patients still had an elevated risk of death in that third year and had increased disability contributing to 90.0 DALYs per 1,000 persons.

Fig. 5: Sanky plot of changes of number of sequelae or DALYs of PASC by organ system in the first, second and third year after SARS-CoV-2 infection by care setting of the acute phase compared to the control group without infection.

From https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-024-02987-8

Non-Hospitalized (mild) COVID infection:

Hospitalized (severe) COVID infection:

Samuel Hurtado, a macroeconomic modeler, brought up an interesting point on Twitter about why the difference between infected and uninfected people in the study had narrowed over time. In the study above, it is possible that some of the 5,206,835 “uninfected controls'' may have been infected in the last 3 years with COVID without it being documented in the EHR. From wastewater data, Jay Weiland predicts that the average American had COVID 2.7 times by March 2024. It would be interesting to compare results from a historical pre-pandemic control group that could not have been unknowingly infected with COVID.

Pediatrics

A new study from UCLA shows that children born between April 2020 and December 2022 to mothers with COVID infection during pregnancy had a ten-fold higher frequency of developmental delay (DD) by age 3 than controls (11.6% DD exposed to COVID in utero vs. 1.6% DD in controls). Severe or critical maternal COVID infection was more likely to lead to neurodevelopmental delay in the exposed children. 

A meta-analysis of 70 studies with 172,165 children and adolescents with COVID shows that the risk of critical disease from COVID infection is 4% in previously healthy children. Children with one pre-COVID comorbidity had 3.95-fold increased risk of critical COVID disease and those who had ≥2 comorbidities had a 9.51-fold higher risk for critical COVID disease. Comorbidities included cardiovascular and neurological disorders, chronic pulmonary conditions (excluding asthma), diabetes, obesity, and immunocompromise, all with statistically significant ORs >2.00. 

A new article in the Journal of Pediatric Nursing interviewed 17 parents whose children have Long COVID. "The findings describe how the parents' constant struggle for their child and how the child's symptoms affect their daily life and their family situation in three themes: Navigating the unknown, Navigating life with post COVID-19, and Navigating between fear and hope for an uncertain future."

Vaccines

An article in the NEJM on the durability of the XBB.1.5 vaccine shows that it was 52% effective against infection at 4 weeks, 33% at 10 weeks and only 20% at 20 weeks. But, vaccine effectiveness against hospitalization was higher and was 67% at 4 weeks and decreased to 57% by 10 weeks. "Overall, the XBB.1.5 vaccines were effective against omicron subvariants, although less so against JN.1. The effectiveness was greater against hospitalization and death than against infection, and it waned moderately from its peak over time."

Masks needed

A review of articles evaluating 50 commercial airplane flights shows that the length of the flight matters for transmission of COVID. Compared to short airplane flights (< 3 hours), medium length flights (3 to 6 hours) were associated with a 4.7-fold increase in COVID transmission. Long flights (> 6 hours) were associated with a 26-fold increase in COVID incidence. Every 1 hour increase in flight duration was associated with a 1.5-fold increase in COVID transmission. However, on long flights where masking was enforced, there was no increased transmission in COVID. 

An airplane cabin is an enclosed space. Carbon dioxide levels increase as people breathe and the CO2 can become quite high before the flight is in the air, as that is when the ventilation system starts working. A recent study showed that SARS-CoV-2 can be transmitted to others more easily when the ambient CO2 concentration increases. Higher CO2 levels of even 800 ppm allow SARS-2 to be more aerostable. 

Long COVID

A very interesting study from Jeroen den Dunnen’s lab asked “Is autoimmunity a CAUSE or CONSEQUENCE in Long-COVID?” The group separated Long COVID patients into 3 groups related to protein signatures in their blood:

• LC-1 (Red): Neuroinflammation

• LC-2 (Grey): Post-Exertional Malaise (PEM)

• LC-3 (Yellow): Pain (muscle, chest, headache)

They then injected mice with IgG antibodies from humans with Long COVID from each group (LC-1, LC-2, LC-3). The antibodies caused the mice to have the same Long COVID symptoms as the humans. This shows that autoantibodies in humans are causing Long COVID symptoms. It also demonstrates a mouse model of Long COVID that could be used for Long COVID research. 

In a case report, a 41 year old vaccinated female with a history of migraine with Long COVID took MDMA and psilocybin mushrooms under the guidance of a therapist. After 3 separate treatments, she was relieved of the Long COVID symptoms and was able to return to her PhD studies full time. After another viral illness, she relapsed with some Long COVID symptoms. One treatment with psilocybin mushrooms allowed her to return to her work again.

A group from West Virginia University used the N3C data base divided into COVID-19 positive people (n = 219,264), and controls of either people with ARDS (n = 222,337) or healthy controls who were COVID-19 negative (n = 213,183). After a COVID positive test, there was an increased risk of Schizophrenia Spectrum and Psychotic Disorders (SSPD), especially in younger people. At 0-12 days after acute COVID infection, there was a 4.6-fold increased risk of SSPD. By 90 days after infection, the risk was 1.7-fold. 

Long COVID, ME/CFS type

A group from Alberta, Canada looked specifically at people with Long COVID, ME/CFS-type in two different cohorts at least 1 year after their acute COVID infection as compared to people who had recovered (R) from a prior COVID infection without Long COVID. They found that Galectin-9 (Gal-9) and Artemin (ARTN) can be used as biomarkers for Long COVID with ME/CFS. Gal-9 was related to immune dysregulation in Long COVID and ARTN levels correlated with both pain and cognitive impairment in Long COVID with ME/CFS. Immunosuppressive CD71+ erythroid cells (CECs) were noted to be the source of ARTN in Long COVID.

Long COVID patients with ME/CFS were also found to have high neutrophils and monocytes and low lymphocytes. T cell exhaustion was noted as well. Looking at specific types of T cells, the authors “found that the frequency of 2B4+CD160+ and TIM3+CD160+ CD8+ T cells completely separated LC [Long COVID] patients from the R [recovered] group.”

Autoantibodies were found in 54% of LC ME/CFS cohort 1, 56% of LC ME/CFS cohort 2, but were rare in people who had recovered from COVID without LC. Autoantibodies were undetectable in healthy controls. 

H5N1

The CDC reported that the original H5N1 human case from Texas had a PB2 E627K mutation. The first Michigan human case was noted to have a PB2 M631L mutation which allows the virus to adapt better to mammals. This week, another dairy worker in Michigan was found to have H5N1 bird flu, but unlike the first two human cases, the person has respiratory symptoms including a cough in addition to eye irritation. I do not have any information on the genome of the virus in this third case.

In addition to cats and cows infected with H5N1 on U.S. dairy farms, the USDA reported this week that alpacas were infected with H5N1 on a “depopulated” poultry farm. “The viral genome sequence for these samples [in alpacas] is the same sequence currently circulating in dairy cattle (B3.13), which is consistent with sequences from the depopulated poultry on this premises.”

Other news

In other news, Florida is now the only state to allow doctors to perform cesarean section births outside of hospitals siding with a private equity physicians group. “Obstetricians worry that private equity clinics will increase the risks for women and babies when complications arise.” Private clinics do not have a blood bank, an ICU, a NICU, or Interventional Radiology. 

Private equity firms are buying health care practices and the result is making doctors and patients miserable. High temperatures from heat waves is increasing the number of premature births. Doctors from the Stanford Center for Precision Mental Health and Wellness are using functional MRIs to map brain circuits related to mental health. 

An app called Detickd can help you identify different types of ticks using AI. This could come in handy if you see a tiny poppy seed sized tick on your body that is as big as a speck of dirt (tweeted by Dr. Tara C. Smith.)

Photo from https://x.com/aetiology/status/1794863613699862628

Lolamicin is a new antibiotic that selects for gram-negative bacteria while protecting the gut microbiome. It works against more than 130 multidrug-resistant gram negative bacteria. 

“Ed Dwight was an aeronautical engineer, a captain in the US Air Force and at test pilot school in 1961 when he received a letter from the Pentagon, authorized by President John F Kennedy, asking him if he'd like to become the first black astronaut.” Dwight trained to go to space, but after President Kennedy was assassinated, the project was terminated. Mr. Dwight went on to become a famous sculptor. Now, at age 90, he finally got to go into space with Blue Origin.

Photo: Blue Origin

At the 2012 Olympics, Lashinda Demus lost the gold medal for the 400-meter hurdles by .07 seconds to a Russian opponent who was later found out to have been doping. At the Paris Olympics this summer, she will receive her long awaited gold medal, as will high jumper Erik Kynard.

Have a good rest of your weekend,

Ruth Ann Crystal MD

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COVID news notes:

US Variant tracker: https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#variant-proportions

Variants around the world: https://outbreak.info/

World wastewater maps (reflects COVID cases): https://www.arcgis.com/apps/dashboards/c778145ea5bb4daeb58d31afee389082

CDC COVID data tracker: https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/index.html#datatracker-home

• Hospitalizations are no longer being reported

US Wastewater Monitoring:

CDC wastewater reporting: https://www.cdc.gov/nwss/rv/COVID19-nationaltrend.html

Wastewater increased from MINIMAL to LOW with the biggest increase of SARS-2 virus in wastewater in the west.

CDC wastewater map: https://www.cdc.gov/nwss/rv/COVID19-currentlevels.html

National SARS-CoV-2 data from Sara Anne Willette: https://iowacovid19tracker.org/

Hawaii levels are “Excessive” which is the level some states were in January 2024.

CDC Forecasting of expected EPIDEMIC GROWTH of SARS-CoV-2: https://www.cdc.gov/forecast-outbreak-analytics/about/rt-estimates.html

Wastewater SCAN:

https://data.wastewaterscan.org/

California statewide view https://buff.ly/3YObiul

• Stanford is at 810 pMMoV

• SF Oceanside 563

• Sausalito 530

• Gilroy 380

• SF Southeast 376

Sewer Coronavirus Alert Network (SCAN) project by Stanford University: 

Stanford, last 6 weeks

Wastewater SCAN: https://data.wastewaterscan.org/

• Los Angeles is very low at 40 PMMoV as compared to Stanford which is at 810 pMMoV

  

New York: https://coronavirus.health.ny.gov/covid-19-wastewater-surveillance

Santa Clara County wastewater: https://covid19.sccgov.org/dashboard-wastewater

Marin county: https://coronavirus.marinhhs.org/surveillance

JP Weiland: https://twitter.com/JPWeiland

5/31/24 https://x.com/JPWeiland/status/1796627057738129798

May 31st update: Infections increased modestly again this week (+10%), more aggressively in the Southwest. NWSS data only since Feb 2024.

• 187,000 new infections/day 

• 1 in every 178 people currently infected

5/31/24 https://x.com/JPWeiland/status/1796627759919214749

• The Southwest (CA, AZ, HI, NV) has seen larger increases, with metrics about doubling in the past 4 weeks, back up to medium transmission levels.

BNO News: https://x.com/BNOFeed/status/1795195453627048409

So far this year, nearly 3.3 million COVID cases have been reported in the U.S., causing 283,605 hospitalizations and 29,370 deaths.

Michael Hoerger:  http://pmc19.com/data/, https://twitter.com/michael_hoerger

Canada: Tara Moriarty lab COVID data: https://x.com/MoriartyLab

https://x.com/MoriartyLab/status/1794823926046163180

• Canadian COVID Forecast: May 25-Jun 7, 2024

  • SEVERE: none

  • VERY HIGH: none

  • HIGH:  SK (Saskatchewan)

  • MODERATE: CAN, AB, BC, MB, NB, NL, North, NS, ON, QC, PEI

• About 1 in 67 people in Canada are CURRENTLY infected.

Australia

https://x.com/CrabbBrendan/status/1794925855342469260

@CrabbBrendan

No accurate figures so it's up to the brilliance of @Mike_Honey_ @dbRaevn & a few others to estimate what's going on. This suggests that over 1 million people have C0VID in Oz right now, & that almost half of the entire population [of Australia] has had C0VID in the last 6 months. These numbers are extraordinary.

https://x.com/Mike_Honey_/status/1794706372275454189

Australian COVID-19 weekly stats update:

Sharp rises in most indicators continue.

The Risk Analysis shows a sharp rise in the estimate to 5.2% Currently Infectious, or 1-in-19. 

https://mike-honey.github.io/covid-19-au-vaccinations/output/covid-19-au%20-%20report%20Weekly.pdf

5/29/24 Australia

https://x.com/JosetteSchoenma/status/1796037721720242260

• SARS-CoV-2 infections are rising passed the levels of last Christmas's JN.1 wave in NSW Australia

• Mostly KP.3

Acute COVID infections, General COVID info

Fortune magazine:

5/30/24 Fortune Well: COVID can cause new health problems even 3 years after infection, study finds: 'We don’t know what’s going to happen at 10 years' https://buff.ly/3V1trTX

• “People are developing new-onset disease as the result of an infection that they had 3 years ago,” says @zalaly, “It challenges the notion that these viruses are sort of self-contained or that after the acute phase, they become inconsequential.”

5/30/24 Nature (Topol, Al-Aly): Three-year outcomes of post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 https://buff.ly/3X0de3W

This study followed 135,161 SARS-CoV-2 infected individuals and 5,206,835 controls from the Veterans Affairs hospitals for three years after COVID infection in 2020. For people who were not hospitalized with their original COVID infection, their risk of death normalized after year 1 post-COVID, but at 3 years, they still had 9.6 disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) per 1,000 persons. At 3 years, previously hospitalized patients still had an elevated risk of death in the third year and increased PASC disability contributing to 90.0 DALYs per 1,000 persons. Although risks decreased over time, patients who had been hospitalized with COVID in 2020 still had significantly increased risk of death and health loss in the third year.

Fig. 5: Sanky plot of changes of number of sequelae or DALYs of PASC by organ system in the first, second and third year after SARS-CoV-2 infection by care setting of the acute phase compared to the control group without infection.

Non-Hospitalized (mild) COVID infection:

Hospitalized (severe) COVID infection:

5/30/24 CIDRAP: Study reveals persistent risk of death, symptoms in COVID survivors at 3 years https://buff.ly/3V6jxjO

• Mild COVID infection is not benign. 3 years after COVID infection in 2020 (before vaccines), people with mild COVID infections were still at risk of health problems years later. Risk was much higher in people who had been hospitalized with their acute COVID infection.

• “135,161 COVID-19 survivors and 5,206,835 controls in the VA system for 3 years to estimate the risks of long COVID and death. At the time that the survivors were infected, COVID vaccines and antivirals hadn't been developed.”

• "a brief, seemingly innocuous or benign encounter with the virus can still lead to health problems years later." 

Very interesting tweet thread from Samuel Hurtado with the following points

1. I saw the difference between infected and uninfected is narrowing with time. This could be because they're getting better, because the badly hit are dying, or because the controls are getting infected without testing and showing up as positives.

2. there's aging in the individuals tracked in the database so some growth is to be expected even if nothing unusual is happening.

3. I think what we are seeing is worsening health in the general population. It is happening worldwide, because of covid.

https://x.com/SamuelHurtadoBE/status/1796195264014754206

https://twitter.com/michael_hoerger/status/1796326008989352211

Social and Advocacy

Pediatrics

5/25/24 J of Pediatric Nursing: Navigating an unfamiliar world – Parents' experiences of having a child with post COVID-19 https://buff.ly/4aSTl2h

• 17 parents of children with Long COVID

• "The findings describe how the parents' constant struggle for their child and how the child's symptoms affect their daily life and their family situation in three themes: Navigating the unknown, Navigating life with post COVID-19, and Navigating between fear and hope for an uncertain future." 

5/16/24 iNews UK: ‘It’s destroyed us’: Parents of children with long Covid accused of making it up https://buff.ly/3V8o1q3

5/24/24 Nature Scientific Reports (UCLA): Neurodevelopmental delay in children exposed to maternal SARS-CoV-2 in-utero https://buff.ly/4eberf9 

• Exposed children were born between April 2020 and December 2022 

• n = 172 children exposed to maternal SARS-CoV-2 infection vs. n = 128 control children at about 6 months to 3 years of age. 

• Overall, 20 of 172 exposed children (11.6%) and 2 of 128 control children (1.6%), p = 0.0006 had developmental delay (DD). 

• Severe/critical maternal COVID-19 predicted below average neurodevelopment in the exposed cohort (OR 2.6, 95% CI 1.1–6.4)

• Children exposed to antenatal COVID-19 have a tenfold higher frequency of DD.

5/23/24 J of Pediatric Infectious Disease Society: Risk Factors for Pediatric Critical COVID-19: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis https://buff.ly/458kgpw

Meta-analysis of 70 studies with 172,165 children and adolescents with COVID. The risk of critical disease from COVID-19 was 4% In previously healthy children. Children with one comorbidity, critical disease was 3.95-fold higher and 9.51-fold higher risk for ≥2 comorbidities.

Comorbidities included cardiovascular and neurological disorders, chronic pulmonary conditions (excluding asthma), diabetes, obesity, and immunocompromise, all with statistically significant ORs >2.00. 

5/29/24 CIDRAP: Having 2 or more underlying conditions increase the risk of severe COVID-19 almost 10-fold in kids, data show https://buff.ly/4c0wVN8

Vaccines

5/29/24 NEJM: Durability of XBB.1.5 Vaccines against Omicron Subvariants https://buff.ly/3x0NE4j

• "The vaccine effectiveness against infection reached a level of 52.2% after 4 weeks. It decreased to 32.6% after 10 weeks and to 20.4% after 20 weeks.

• The effectiveness against hospitalization reached a level of 66.8% after 4 weeks and decreased to 57.1% after 10 weeks.

• The effectiveness against death was higher than that against other end points.

• Additional analyses showed that the XBB.1.5 vaccines were effective across age groups and in persons who had not been previously infected or previously vaccinated."

• "Overall, the XBB.1.5 vaccines were effective against omicron subvariants, although less so against JN.1. The effectiveness was greater against hospitalization and death than against infection, and it waned moderately from its peak over time."

Masks needed

5/21/24 Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health (Stanford): The Risk of Aircraft-Acquired SARS-CoV-2 Transmission during Commercial Flights: A Systematic Review https://buff.ly/3UOIMXS

• A review of 50 flights shows that the length of the flight matters for transmission of COVID. Every 1 hour increase in flight duration was associated with a 1.5-fold increase in COVID transmission.

• However, on long flights where masking was enforced, there was no increased transmission in COVID. "long flights with enforced masking had no transmission reported."

• We know from a recent mega-review from Trish Greenhalgh’s group that masks work if you use them.  

4/25/24 Nature: Ambient carbon dioxide concentration correlates with SARS-CoV-2 aerostability and infection risk https://buff.ly/3K76FVy

• SARS-CoV-2 can be transmitted to others more easily when the ambient CO2 concentration in the room increases. Higher CO2 levels of even 800 ppm allow SARS-2 to be more aerostable. Therefore, it is critical that we improve indoor air quality to decrease COVID transmission.

Long COVID

5/31/24 BioRxiV: Transfer of IgG from Long COVID patients induces symptomology in mice https://buff.ly/4bJ1uax

Cohort exclusively consisted of patients who only had mild symptoms during the acute phase of infection.

• Transferring total IgG antibodies from people with Long COVID into mice caused the mice to get similar Long COVID symptoms.

• The findings demonstrate IgG's causative role in Long COVID pathogenesis and propose a murine model for developing targeted therapeutics. 

Video presentation: Transfer of IgG of Long-COVID Patients Induces Subgroup-Specific Symptoms in Mice - Hung-Jen Chen

Sex differences in sensitivity to pain (pressure needed for mouse to feel the touch)

Tweet thread on article above: https://x.com/DrDenDunnen/status/1796901736151392282

1. IgG antibodies from Long-COVID patients induce symptoms in mice, indicating autoimmunity plays a causal role in this disease. 

2. Antibodies from different subgroups induce distinct symptoms, indicating the presence of multiple (groups of) auto-antibodies. 

5/30/24 (July 2024 issue) Journal of Autoimmunity (U Alberta, Canada): Diverse immunological dysregulation, chronic inflammation, and impaired erythropoiesis in long COVID patients with chronic fatigue syndrome https://buff.ly/3VxgvXz

Highlights:

• This study specifically characterized LC with ME/CFS.

• We demonstrated that Galectin-9 and artemin are associated with ME/CFS in LC.

• This study links Galectin-9 with immune dysregulation in LC.

• We define CD71+ erythroid cells (CECs) as a source of artemin in LC. Elevated ARTN levels correlated with both pain and cognitive impairment in Long COVID with ME/CFS.

• This study advances our understanding of the mechanism underlying chronic inflammation in LC.

Biomarkers:

Finally, our regularized logistic regression analysis validated that the expansion of TIM-3+CD160+ and 2B4+CD160+ CD8+ T cells serves as a reliable discriminator between the LC and R groups.

Consistent with our broader findings, the regression model further confirmed that an increase in CD4TE, ARTN, CEC, Gal-9, CD8TE, and MCP1, coupled with a decrease in TGF-β1 and MAIT cells, effectively distinguishes LC with ME/CFS from the R groups. 

5/28/24 Clinical Case Reports: Long‐COVID symptoms improved after MDMA and psilocybin therapy: A case report https://buff.ly/3yPG4Kb

• A 41 year old vaccinated female with history of migraine had Long COVID symptoms

5/25/24 New POTS diagnosis in the Emergency Department: https://x.com/jenniferhulme/status/1794496409498001783

• MDs/PAs/NPs: do orthostatic HR for everyone with unexplained tachycardia

5/30/24 PLOS One (W. Virginia University): SARS-CoV-2 infection is associated with an increase in new diagnoses of schizophrenia spectrum and psychotic disorder: A study using the US national COVID cohort collaborative (N3C) https://buff.ly/4aHLTa4

• At 0-12 days, there was a 4.6-fold increased risk. At 22-90 days after a positive COVID test, the risk was 2.9-fold that of controls. More than 90 days after a positive COVID test, the risk of SSPD was increased by 1.7-fold. 

Long COVID vs Long SARS-1

2022: Oxford Open Immunology (John Patcai): Is ‘Long Covid’ similar to ‘Long SARS’? https://buff.ly/3VphR6g

Excellent article from a physician who helped with rehab of people who had SARS-1 in Toronto in 2002 - 2003.

“For those interested in rehabilitation, it is once more noted that the peer group support was very highly valued by the patients. Those wishing to treat Long Covid remotely (such as with telehealth) should consider this. 

Pinnock F , Rich J, Vasquez B et al. Neurocognitive outcome following recovery from severe acute respiratory syndrome—coronavirus-1 (SARS-CoV-1). J Int Neuropsychol Soc 2021;1–11. https://buff.ly/3KqZCHw

Neuropsychological testing results showed ‘specific long-term cognitive deficits associated with SARS’.

ME/CFS

https://x.com/DrMaureenHanson/status/1795602719472021903

5/15/24 National Advisory Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NANDS) Council ME/CFS Research Roadmap Working Group https://buff.ly/3V4IsUW

• ME/CFS Research Roadmap https://www.ninds.nih.gov/sites/default/files/2024-05/Report%20of%20the%20MECFS%20Research%20Roadmap%20Working%20Group%20of%20Council_05_29_2024_508C.pdf

H5N1

5/30/24 CIDRAP: Second dairy farm worker infected with H5 avian flu in Michigan https://buff.ly/3x7MNyF 

• A third person is positive for H5N1 bird flu from dairy cattle, but unlike the first two human cases, he has respiratory symptoms including a cough in addition to eye irritation.

Bird flu is infecting more mammals.

H5N1 in Alpacas https://x.com/EricTopol/status/1795548660584882371

5/28/24 Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) H5N1 Detections in Alpacas | Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service https://buff.ly/3Kp8xcr

• NVSL has confirmed that the viral genome sequence for these samples is the same sequence currently circulating in dairy cattle (B3.13), which is consistent with sequences from the depopulated poultry on this premises. 

5/24/24 CDC Technical Update: Summary Analysis of the Genetic Sequence of a Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza A(H5N1) Virus Identified in a Human in Michigan

https://buff.ly/3yK48OI

• The Texas human case had a PB2 E627K mutation. 

• The Michigan human case #1 had a PB2 M631L mutation that allows the virus to adapt better to mammals. This mutation resulted in the “enhancement of virus replication and disease severity in mice during studies with avian influenza A(H10N7)”.  

Other news:

4/29/24 Stanford Medicine: Finding personalized approaches to treating mental illness https://buff.ly/4bYlTYV

• The importance of getting precise with mental health, treating it as health.

• In a nutshell, precision mental health is the idea that measuring the biochemistry and circuitry of the brain, with all available tools and data, is as important as gathering evidence about the rest of the body — or more so given the high percentage of brain dysfunctions that can manifest life-threatening disorders. It is viewing what we now call mental health as brain health. Or, more succinctly, just health. 

5/26/24 NBC: Florida to allow doctors to perform C-sections outside hospitals, siding with a private equity-owned physicians group https://buff.ly/3UVgzi1

• In a private clinic, there will be no blood banks, ICU, NICU, Interventional Radiology, etc.

https://twitter.com/placentadoc/status/1795959064242929779

The irony is that one of the insidious barriers to abortion access has been the closure of free-standing clinics because they don’t have a hospital affiliation or because they are seen as “unsafe.” The risk of serious complications from abortion is tiny compared with a c-section.

5/30/24 WSJ: You Can Thank Private Equity for That Enormous Doctor’s Bill https://buff.ly/4bEdLNw

• Private-equity investors have poured billions into healthcare but often game the system, hurting both doctors and patients 

5/30/24 Vox: Heat waves increase the number of risky, premature births https://buff.ly/4e3x58l

https://x.com/aetiology/status/1794863613699862628

@aetiology: A reminder sans poppy seed muffin about how small #ticks can be. Hiking today and this **** thought they were hitching a ride. Compare to the speck of dirt at the bottom.

https://x.com/VirusesImmunity/status/1793643263225983328

Use the Detickt.com App to identify ticks.

Tattoos that fade within 3 years. Made with biodegradable polymers.

https://ephemeral.tattoo/

5/29/24 Nature: A Gram-negative-selective antibiotic that spares the gut microbiome https://buff.ly/3X5drTw

“Here we report the design and discovery of Lolamicin, a Gram-negative-specific antibiotic targeting the lipoprotein transport system. Lolamicin has activity against a panel of more than 130 multidrug-resistant clinical isolates, shows efficacy in multiple mouse models of acute pneumonia and septicaemia infection, and spares the gut microbiome in mice, preventing secondary infection with Clostridioides difficile.”

Explainer: 5/29/24 Nature: ‘Smart’ antibiotic Lolamicin can kill deadly bacteria while sparing the microbiome https://buff.ly/4e0KhuN

5/30/24 BBC: Ed Dwight: A space pioneer who finally became an astronaut https://buff.ly/458RkNO

• "Dwight was an aeronautical engineer, a captain in the US Air Force and at test pilot school in 1961 when he received a letter from the Pentagon, authorized by President John F Kennedy, asking him if he'd like to become the first black astronaut.” Dwight trained to go to space, but after President Kennedy was assassinated, the project was terminated. Mr Dwight went on to become a famous sculptor. 

• Now, at age 90, he finally got to go into space with Blue Origin.

5/30/24 AP: 12 years later, American Olympic hurdler Lashinda Demus will get gold medal at ceremony in Paris https://buff.ly/3X28pag

At the 2012 Olympics, Lashinda Demus lost the gold medal for the 400-meter hurdles by .07 seconds to a Russian opponent who was later found out to have been doping. At the Paris Olympics this summer, she will receive her long awaited gold medal.

From Team USA’s Facebook page: